Blackburn close to Indian takeover

26/10/2010

Having a mega-rich owner seems to be de rigueur these days; why even a dull club like Aston Villa have, even if he appears to be a suitably dull billionaire who doesn’t spend any money. However, anyone is popping up in the unlikely spot of Blackburn Rovers, the club who started the boom in rich men chucking money at failing football clubs back in the early 1990s.

They expect to be taken over by the Indian group Venky’s, which specialises in poultry farming and pharmaceuticals, by November after a series of talks between them, the club and the Premier League. Whether they’ll come in wallets blazing is another matter altogether however, although given that the club are currently 17th in the league, Rovers fans will no doubt be hoping that they do.

‘We expect to be the first Indian company to acquire a Premier League team,’ said Venky's chairperson Anuradha J Desai. ‘We are particularly delighted that the team is Blackburn Rovers, with whom we believe we have many shared values and ambitions.’